Austin’s window on tomorrow

As I write this week’s column I’ve just arrived at South By South West in the United States, a nine-day conference which bills itself as the ‘‘world’s largest gathering of creative thinkers in the world’’.

With 100,000 attendees and concurrent streams of digital, film and music delivering more than 500 events; they might just be right.

Today’s agenda includes Malcolm ‘‘Tipping Point’’ Gladwell, Henry ‘‘the Fonz’’ Winkler and CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker. Last night Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement premiered their new US version of What We Do in the Shadows, then tomorrow Samsung debut a new tablet.

While I’ll do a more substantive column on the key tech and business trends being surfaced here, this one will focus on first impressions of Austin in SxSW mode, a place that’s known for providing a window into tomorrow, today.

I often find it’s what the cabbies are saying, what people are consuming and saying on the street that provide good datapoints on behavioural waves that might hit our shores. The first thing you notice is that there are no cabbies. There are only ride-sharing services. This ranges from familiar names like Uber and Lyft, through to the likes of Via, Juno and Waze.

Speaking to my Uber driver on the way in, I’m amazed by how much coin he’s making. He actually lives

100 miles away and has a day job, but he’s come to Austin to drive for the weekend. I ask him if it’s worth the trouble and my jaw drops on the response. ‘‘Sure buddy, I’ve pocketed $3800 for the last three days’’.

Arriving in Austin, the place is absolutely flooded with electric scooters. The City of Austin estimates that privately owned electric scooters number close to

60,000 and it’s not just digital hipsters. I see construction workers, suited business folk and school kids all using the diminutive decks. And the buses here have scooter carriers to allow you to mix and match the arterial routes with your last mile.

But its not without cost with over

200 reported accidents this year. Few obey the local bylaws on only using the scooters on the roads, so

New Zealand Share Market

sidewalks are uneasy places to be.A month ago a student was killed, ironically by an Uber driver. It’s unlikely to be the last incident.

While its probably got the best barbecue food in the world (check out Franklins or Terry Blacks) Austin’s not great at coffee, with many of the brews brown water.

The best coffee I found wasn’t pulled by a person, it was made by a robot called Briggo. Using tech developed locally, Briggo is a booth the size of a small garden shed that will deliver you a well-made latte in just two minutes. You can order at the booth or in advance via the app, and customise your order to within an inch of its life with options around soy, decaf and syrup.

At a time when good baristas are earning $35 an hour, a Briggo robot pays for itself after a few months. While it’s not quite as good as Havana Coffeeworks or Coffee Supreme it’s still pretty good. But probably less good for the future of the barista industry.

Another thing that’s apparent on the streets is the rise of smaller houses and the ‘‘radical decluttering’’ that accompanies this. This involves getting rid of unneeded goods and possessions to have a simpler life.

A phone app – www.letgo.com – has tapped into this by offering a free service to flick unwanted goods, based on geolocation along with instant chats and video. With over 150 million downloads it seems to be catching on, as does similar service www.decluttr.com.

Also in evidence in superconnected Austin – where free wifi is as ubiquitous as it is fast – is the rise and rise of ambient (also known as out-of-home) advertising.

In a digital world, where adservers seem to track every facet of your online existence, ambient advertising provides a different way for companies to get their message across.

Roaring past my Uber yesterday was the local chapter of the Bandidos motorcycle gang. But rather than gang colours, all the riders were sporting flags and emblems for ‘‘Good Omens’’ the latest Amazon Prime mini-series.

Then today a group of singing and chattering nuns started doing street-side chorusing, with the same end in mind, encouraging the crowds to head over to a brand activation for the same show.

Nobody knows what the future will bring here in Aotearoa, but based on my first days here I reckon you might be seeing coffee robots, radical decluttering and a lot more electric scooters.

Let’s just hope the local rules for the latter get sorted before someone dies.

Mike ‘‘MOD’’ O’Donnell is a professional director and adviser. His Twitter handle is @modsta and he reckons Terry Black’s BBQ brisket is as good as it gets.